U.S. carloads down, intermodal up, in latest week

Back to recent form: U.S. freight carload traffic for the week ending June 8, 2013, returned to its "mixed" trands, the Association of American Railroads said Thursday, June 13. U.S. freight carload traffic fell 2.8% measured against the comparable week in 2012, while intermodal continued its winning streak, up 2.5%.

Total U.S. traffic for the week was down 0.3% compared with the same week in 2012, AAR said. Last week AAR noted both U.S. freight carload and U.S. intermodal traffic had notched increases during the month of May.

Five of the 10 carload commodity groups AAR measures posted increases, again led by petroleum and petroleum products, up 27.8%. Commodities showing a decrease compared with the same week last year included grain, down 22.5%.

Canadian freight carload volume for the week ending June 8 mirrored its U.S. counterpart, down 4.9%, and Canadian intermodal volume also retreated, down 3.3% compared with the same week a year ago. Mexican freight carload volume, by contrast, rose 12.1% for the week, while Mexican intermodal volume also did well, up 1.1%.

Combined North American rail volume for the 23 weeks of 2013 on 13 reporting U.S., Canadian, and Mexican railroads was down a modest 0.5% measured against the comparable period in 2012. Combined North American intermodal volume was up 4.1%.